"Expect the Unexpected," a muddled new film from Hong Kong's school of shoot-'em-up police action dramas, has a soft heart. It's a problem for a movie that is otherwise an onslaught of violent clashes between cops and bad guys.

In Mandarin and Cantonese with English subtitles, the latest from director Patrick Yau ("The Longest Night," "The Odd One Dies"), opens today.

Lau Ching Wan is Sam, a cool Hong Kong detective working in the organized crime unit. A laid- back romantic, he's sometimes late getting to the scene of the crime. But once focused on forensic details, he's a master. And he's a bloodhound tracking down crooks.

His boss is the more formal, uptight Ken (Simon Yam). He can crack cases, too, but his real talent lies in keeping the bureaucracy of departmental yes-men from messing things up with procedural constraints.

The film, shot after the handover of the territory to the People's Republic of China, provides a fascinating glimpse of Hong Kong now and some interesting insights. One member of a bungling gang of jewel thieves is a former mainland farmer who confesses he turned to crime as an alternative to raising his family in abject poverty.

Though awesome scenes of gun violence prevail, Hong Kong movie fans might get restless over the hokey love story sandwiched like sweetened oatmeal between two major blood-and-bullets confrontations. Both Sam and Ken have their eye on the same pretty woman, Wanda (Ruby Wong), and it gets a bit silly how they angle for her attention.

Genre fans, however, get a lot to chew on with a knockout plot twist at the end, all things considered, is pretty twisted, as well.